Original subtitles

The MasterChef semifinals continue.

Last time, Olivia and Munopa went home.

Now this year's six best cooks remain.

This is totally taking over my life.

All I'm talking about to my friends and family is cooking.

I don't think that there was

any point of this competition

where I thought I would be in the final six.

The expectation is

very, very high now.

It's just, like, mixed emotions.

Excited. Happy. Worried.

Tonight...

Ooh!

..they're in for an unforgettable cooking experience like no other.

A British culinary icon

is just about to enter the MasterChef kitchen.

They're going to go on a journey where imagination has no bounds.

What comes next is going to change their opinion of cookery

and food forever.

Pink!

Oh, my gosh!

Welcome back.

We have a very special challenge for you right now.

30 years ago, a restaurant opened

that changed the British culinary scene forever.

This restaurant

has had three Michelin stars

for an unprecedented 21 years.

Wow!

It is now a real honour to introduce you to

the genius behind The Fat Duck restaurant...

THEY LAUGH

..the one and only Heston Blumenthal.

Oh, my days!

Oh!

Wow.

In 1995, an unknown and untrained Heston Blumenthal

took over a tiny Berkshire pub,

determined to rewrite the culinary rule book.

It was absolute chaos.

For the first ten years of the Duck,

I was working 120 hours a week and getting 20 hours' sleep.

It was exhausting.

Questioning the accepted techniques and rules of cooking,

Heston introduced menus

with bizarre-sounding dishes that delighted diners.

Heston's food attacks all the senses -

the sound, the sight, the smell, the taste, the touch.

GREGG: It's the magic. It's the creativity.

Nobody does food like Heston.

NARRATOR: Within ten years of it opening,

The Fat Duck had earned three Michelin stars

and was named the world's best restaurant.

There's no way in a million years I could have imagined being here

and what has happened over the last 30 years.

My ADHD explains a lot.

If you find something that you love,

you just go into it hook, line and sinker.

But in 2023, Heston's mental health deteriorated,

and for his own safety, he had to be briefly sectioned by his wife.

Knowing my diagnosis is bipolar, it's been just under a year now.

If something then comes in that frustrated me,

I would go into anger or rage.

But the upside is,

I'm vomiting ideas almost with every breath.

Now I'm coming to terms with the new me.

We want our six to try and recreate Heston's dishes.

They're going to be shown things they thought were never possible.

It would be really challenging for professional chefs.

So for the contestants, the challenge is humongous.

Each team has been given one of Heston's iconic recipes,

and your job as pairs is to recreate it.

So, nice and simple, really, isn't it?

THEY LAUGH

The toughest challenge on MasterChef so far.

3½ hours.

Let's cook.

OK...

Right. Here we go.

I'll leave you the fish. I'm going to start the cures, OK?

This is a massive honour.

Our six are going to take on dishes

which have taken years in the making, years to develop.

What's this for?

As good as they are,

they won't have done dishes anything like this,

because they are Heston dishes.

Salt and... Prague powder.

Do you know what that is? What? Prague powder?

They have got to become part chef, part scientist.

I'm...

..completely mind-blown.

I absolutely can't believe

this is happening right now.

I've admired Heston for so long, it's equal measure

amazing and terrifying.

Assisting Heston in the kitchen is The Fat Duck's head of development,

Ashley Hatton.

The amount of time you've got,

going to work straight away is key.

Copywriter Claire and vocational trainer Sam

have over 50 steps to follow to achieve a highly intricate dish

inspired by one of Heston's culinary heroes -

godfather of nouvelle cuisine Alain Chapel.

I went to his restaurant and I had this unbelievable dish,

which was a jelly of pigeon.

So I wanted to do an homage to Alain Chapel.

Heston's version is called Jelly of Quail.

The key components are a pea mousse, quail consomme jelly,

crayfish cream and a chicken liver parfait.

Here we've got a complex dish

which is layered and things are hidden underneath.

It's a beautiful, delicate little thing.

You want to be able to cut through all the layers,

so you get all of them in the same spoonful.

It's served with a truffle toast sandwich

and a container of oak moss,

and true to Heston's form, it's a multi-sensory experience.

You pour dry ice over the oak moss itself,

and with the vapour, it carries the smell of the oak moss.

So what you're doing is tasting a smell.

We've got classic ideas going on here,

but with modern techniques.

There's just so many things that could go wrong.

I need to follow exactly

what is on the recipe.

Sam is working on the all-important namesake of the dish.

Jelly of Quail comes in the form of a quail consomme,

taking quail stock, minced quail's egg white,

brought together and completely clarified

so it's absolutely crystal-clear.

I'm slowly going to bring it to simmer,

so the egg white's just creating a raft for this clear consomme.

Hopefully it should work!

Claire is tackling another vital element of their dish -

the chicken liver parfait.

I'm preparing sous vide bags, which I've never done in my life.

Let's do it.

The chicken liver parfait is basically

a very intense reduction of different alcohols with butter,

chicken livers, eggs.

Doesn't it look like it's going to pop?!

BANG

Ohhh! It did pop!

Whoa!

Oh, no. That's a disaster!

Claire and Sam are being introduced to all sorts of new paraphernalia,

and they're struggling a little bit.

Do you have more shallot? I've got more shallot.

I can do it again. That's no problem.

A lot of work to do, lots of processes.

Timing's important.

The jelly, the chicken liver parfait...

Don't do it again. ..have to be set perfectly.

I think it's going to be really difficult.

I don't normally come down the back, but that's what it's saying...

Fishmonger Harry and full-time mum Hazel

will be tackling one of Heston's most immersive creations.

Harry and Hazel are tasked with a dish

which incorporates not just food but also sound.

The Sound of the Sea is the title of this dish.

I met a scientist who worked for a flavour company.

We did an experiment,

and I realised the effect of eating something

whilst listening to something is massive.

We have mackerel, halibut,

cockles, seaweed, all together on an edible sand,

but within that, there's pickles and cures,

vinegar and salt - the flavours of fish and chips.

It looks like the sand, and you've got the foam of the waves

lapping up on the shore,

but when you've got the headphones on

and you hear the noise of the seagulls,

it takes it to a new level.

You can almost taste the sea before you actually physically taste it.

I'm really excited. I think it's a great dish, but, you know,

there's some ingredients I've never

cooked with before, so we'll see how it goes.

Each of the 18 seafood components is prepared differently.

I'm just coating my halibut in its base cure.

A bit of halibut rolled in some seaweed dust.

Sounds simple enough, but not if it's Heston.

Also getting to grips with a cure is Harry with the mackerel.

6g of toasted coriander seeds.

20g of lemon zest as well.

Knowing Heston, if I'm half a gram out, he'll know!

Curing is the same as cooking, so if there is too much cure,

it will overcook the fish.

If there's not enough cure, the fish won't be firm enough to slice.

Video colourist Sophie

and retail business manager Henry

are tasked with one of Heston's illusionary masterpieces

that's been on the menu for 25 years.

It's one of Heston's most iconic dishes -

bacon and egg ice cream served with pain perdu,

meaning lost bread - French toast, eggy bread.

One of the first areas of cooking that I looked at

in terms of the science was ice cream,

and I quite often found vanilla ice creams to be quite eggy,

and it took me back to my childhood. Boiled eggs.

This is when I started thinking, oh,

I'm going to turn breakfast into a dessert.

The ice cream is frozen in front of the customer,

and it's stirred in a pot, so it sounds like bacon sizzling,

but when it comes out, it looks like scrambled eggs,

and when you eat it,

it has the flavour of ice cream with bacon running through it.

But the preparation is all-important to make sure

the theatre at the table works.

You read it and you think, like, this is bonkers.

You're just like, that goes with that?!

This is tomato jam.

And there's also in there,

strangely, coffee.

While Henry tackles the jam, Sophie focuses on the ice cream.

It's a lot of bacon,

and I don't eat bacon, so...

SHE LAUGHS

..a little bit out of my comfort zone.

Are you nervous? Are you in awe? Where are you here?

Maybe a bit...dancing in between the both of those!

And how... How are you two finding working together?

Sophie's actually a vegetarian, and strangely enough,

the first task, she did the meat stuff and I did the veg stuff.

So maybe we need to have a little rethink about what we divvy up!

THEY LAUGH

One bit of advice for you guys - check your bacon.

How long has it been in for?

It does look quite cooked.

Redo the bacon, because it's too strong.

Teams, you've had one hour.

One hour.

NARRATOR: Across the kitchen,

Claire is working on the bottom layer of the Jelly of Quail...

This isn't any puree, this is Heston puree.

..a pea mousse...

It's the precision of it, isn't it?

I've never dished out 5g of pea puree in my life!

..which will need to be chilled and set

before the rest of the dish can be constructed.

Good luck, little ones. Please work!

First bit of Heston in. OK.

Another element that will need time to set is the chicken liver parfait.

I need to be careful it won't split.

I've already exploded the sous vide machine,

so, you know, I'm a little behind.

The blended parfait is then cooked in a bain-marie.

I've got to get it to exactly 64 degrees.

Couple of degrees either way,

and it'll either be too soft

or can even start to be grainy and really heavy.

Team-mate Sam is still on his first element.

The consomme looking really good.

The crucial bit is to get this out,

making sure that it's not cloudy.

You can't pour it out,

because then you just pour the foam back in,

so you have to extract it without disturbing the foam.

I feel like my hand is shaking,

but I don't want to ruin the whole thing.

Once strained,

the consomme will need to cool before it can be turned into jelly.

The timing is very tight,

so they're going to be close to the edge

to get the right set of the jelly.

How is everything going?

I'm finding this is extremely, like, way out of my comfort zone!

Big time. What are you worried about?

You eating our food?!

THEY LAUGH

Yeah. OK, I'll just disappear!

Right... One on top of the other... and roll.

On the Sound of the Sea,

Harry's mackerel is cured

and ready to be shaped into a ballotine...

Yeah. Roll into a barrel. Nice and tight.

..which will then be cut into medallions.

That mackerel is two fillets

bound together with an edible glue substance.

So just keep rolling and tucking. Rolling, tucking...

He can't rush it. If he cuts it too early,

they'll fall apart.

Meanwhile, Hazel is focusing on an element

that's a play on a traditional seaside snack.

Little cockles are going on the side,

but they're going to be pickled.

Too much pickle means that those cockles can go rubbery.

There's definitely pressure. I mean, I've never cooked like this before.

I mean, what normal person has, to be honest?!

How different is this?

Oh. Miles apart. Miles apart.

It's just so precise. Mmm.

You know, half the battle is getting all your ingredients to hand

and getting everything weighed out perfectly,

before you even think about mixing stuff together,

because it's so easy to make a mistake.

Is there something you're most scared of?

Getting the plating as close to, or, like, the same.

Going to take some time and real patience.

After having to redo the bacon, Sophie is up against it.

You all right, Soph?

Yeah, yeah. Just sweating out like a pig!

She's got it recooked,

but it will need to infuse in milk for two hours...

Timing is tight. I need to get that in there now!

..before it can be turned into a custard for the ice cream.

Jam's on? Yeah, jam is about to go on, yeah.

Just keep pushing. Get those eggs done.

That will take longer than you think. Yeah.

Get more things going, I suppose.

Sophie and Henry's next task is the dish's fiddliest job.

They've got to take a whole egg,

put holes in either end of the egg,

blow the egg out, so the egg is completely empty...

It did say blow, didn't it?

HE LAUGHS

I'm going to put a few more holes in.

Then they've got to plug one end up and, taking a syringe,

they've got to put the ice cream mixture inside the egg.

Oh, look, look at that! The yolk's coming out. Hooray!

In a pot in front of Heston, Gregg and I,

they will have to crack open their eggs

and then add to that liquid nitrogen to make ice cream.

And that's going to be tough.

We've got a lot to do.

You underestimate how long everything takes.

And it's like, you want everything to be, like, perfect.

Sam's quail consomme for the jelly has been cooled.

Yeah?

HE LAUGHS

You clever boy!

It's now down to Claire to finish the next layer...

No breathing!

..by adding the consomme on top of the pea mousse,

which will form the jelly.

OK... Oh, that looks good, Claire. That looks good.

This is going in a blast chiller

until set. A blast chiller until set. OK.

Careful!

You have just an hour and ten minutes left.

One hour, ten minutes left.

Well done. Yes!

It's really, you know, down to the set -

how the consomme sets. And the chicken liver parfait,

that's going to be the biggest hurdle of all,

to get the texture of that right.

On the one hand, I feel really good

that we've got crucial elements

setting in the fridge with an hour and ten minutes to go.

We still have to quenelle the parfait.

I don't know whether the parfait is going to be OK or not.

I haven't done the crayfish cream yet.

We haven't got all of the components that go inside the toast,

including the toast.

So, yeah, still quite a bit.

Harry and Hazel have been working on the stock base

for a Heston trademark component.

Slow, slow, slow...

The seaside foam is inspired by a classic fish white wine sauce,

but adding to that some Japanese flavours.

It should have the aroma and the texture of the foam

as the waves crash on the seashore.

I just need to add this scary stuff.

That's called codium, and then that infuses the foam.

Once you've got your foam base,

just before when you're serving, you froth the foam up.

But there's still a lot to do.

This is N-Zorbit

tapioca maltodextrose, obviously(!)

My worry is I just can't quite see how it comes together as, like,

a sand texture at the moment,

but I'm sure the more stuff I add,

hopefully it'll start to look a bit more like sand.

Also working their way through an extensive prep list

are Henry and Sophie,

who have only just started another of their dish's key elements.

So I'll do this pain perdu mix.

Walnut liquor. This looks like it should be it, doesn't it?

This is about a mixture of eggs, milk,

all sorts of flavourings coming together to make a batter,

which then has brioche soaked in it.

Neither of us have used this vacuum sealer before,

so a little bit nervous about it, to be honest with you.

Sophie and Henry have still got a lot to do.

Do you want to do it?

SHE LAUGHS

And they seem quite relaxed.

Yeah, go on, then. You're on... You're on stop duty.

Have I got to hold it?

But they're going to have to really motor.

THEY LAUGH

OK, great(!)

Oh, oh, oh...! Oh, shoot.

It's OK. We're fine, we're fine.

For the last 20 minutes,

Claire and Sam's full focus

has been on finishing the crayfish cream layer.

Claire, Sam...

..your jelly - have you checked it recently?

No. No. OK.

We'll go and check it. We'll do it now. Please check it.

Yes. OK! I'll go. Thank you. Thank you, Chef.

It's crystallised. Oh, is it?

It needs to come really to ambient now.

It's been so important that we set all of our layers.

But the blast chiller was a little keen, and so it's frozen,

which we don't want.

I can't believe it, after all that work.

It's not easy to reverse it. No. Because it's going to just melt.

Guys, you've got 30 minutes left.

That's 30 minutes.

It's looking a lot more like sand now, which makes me happy.

Oh, that's lovely.

I've never cooked seaweed before, but I've ate it.

With time running out,

one of Harry's final jobs is to finish the foam.

Let's foam this up.

If you don't froth it enough,

you won't get the lightness and the texture of the foam.

Is that the most sort of foam I'm going to get? You want your...

You want your blade sort of half-in, half-out. And then on a low heat?

You could also tip your pan on an angle. Yeah, like that.

God, I hope this thing's right.

Let's get whisking!

Sophie and Henry's milk for the ice cream base

has been infusing with bacon

and is now ready to be made into a custard.

"Place the mixture on medium heat and continuously stir

"using a spatula whilst bringing the temperature up to 84,

"using a probe."

To create the unique eggy flavour, the mixture must be heated up...

It's almost at 82.

..before it's rapidly cooled to exactly four degrees, for piping.

How's it going, Sophie? Yeah, good, I think, I hope.

You're looking the right level of colouration.

The key thing is once you get the coating of the caramel.

Yeah.

It's taking quite a while to come down to temperature.

Any tips? Yes.

Pour a load of salt into the ice

and the temperature of that will plummet.

Thank you.

GREGG: We have just 15 minutes.

15 minutes.

I think we start plating, to be honest.

SAM: Claire, this smells so good!

Yeah, perfect.

This is still at 16. Still at 16?

I'll plate everything, don't worry, and then you get on that.

So the mackerel is looking really nice, actually.

It's got a lovely even texture to it.

Guys, this is precision on another scale, isn't it?

It certainly is!

Oh, God, my hand's shaking now!

Rocher!

Come off the spoon!

Are you doing OK, Soph? Yeah, I'm doing good.

We've just got to get that piped into the eggs.

Whatever you're doing, do it very, very quickly.

You have five minutes.

Yeah! There you go.

HESTON: Oh!

Hey!

Boom!

Yes, yes!

Get them in the eggs now. Yeah.

Otherwise you won't have any ice cream.

60 seconds to finish off.

Well done, well done, well done...

Aargh!

In... down...

Perfect!

SHE GASPS

Nice!

That's it! Stop!

Yes! Wow! Brilliant!

Well done!

You smashed the plating. Well done. Really well done.

I said I'm not going to cry!

THEY LAUGH

Yeah, well, we all knew that wasn't true, didn't we?!

Ooh!

Sam, Claire, please.

Claire and Sam have made Heston's Jelly of Quail.

Layers of crayfish cream, quail consomme jelly and pea mousse

topped with a chicken liver parfait and a fig tuile,

served with a truffle toast sandwich.

You got layers!

That's it. You got the layers.

(Yes!) SHE INHALES SHARPLY

You can the taste the balance in the parfait.

Bang on.

To do a rocher just like that...

..I think you've done a pretty good job.

You had a bit of a problem with the consomme, didn't you?

We did, yeah. Crystallised.

I mean, you can still see it there,

but it's not a deal-breaker.

And I think you've done a really cracking job.

CLAIRE: Thank you, Heston. Thank you. That means the world.

The parfait - beautifully smooth.

The richness of that crayfish cream,

giving sort of seasoning and saltiness at the same time -

I think it's fantastic.

That might be the best sandwich I've ever tasted!

I mean, that rich, buttery parfait,

then going into truffle - that is proper indulgence.

What's going on inside this little bulb is just bizarre.

Everything's really, really cold,

and then as it starts to melt,

you get the flavour of the roasted bird, the quail.

Absolutely delicious! And then the natural sweetness of pea.

I'm amazed you've done this.

That really just happened. Heston ate our food!

That was something else!

And he quite liked it!

I'm so proud of us, honestly.

Good job.

I will remember it forever. It was amazing.

Hazel and Harry have produced

Heston's multi-sensory creation, Sound of the Sea -

cured mackerel and halibut

with pickled cockles,

seaweed and sea vegetables,

served on edible sand

with a sea foam,

and enjoyed while listening to seaside sounds.

FAINT SEASIDE SOUNDS AUDIBLE FROM HEADPHONES

I feel like I want to look down, make sure my shoes are still dry!

SHE LAUGHS

I'm blown away by the experience.

There's the saltiness of the seaweed,

the sharpness of those pickled cockles,

that lovely softness from the halibut

with the kombu around the outside of it,

just pickling it ever so slightly.

And then this foam,

which is reminiscent of sucking in the sea air.

Yeah.

The mackerel was filleted beautifully.

The cure on the mackerel - fab.

The balance between the sand and the foam

I think is wonderful.

Actually, do you know what?

I'm going to put my headphones back on again.

THEY LAUGH

It's the very simple flavours of almost salt and vinegar.

The sea vegetables, some of them salty, some of them pickled,

going sharp, then going into salty.

That's a fabulous dish.

You have really done it proud.

THEY LAUGH

Oh, mate! Well done. Well done.

That was unreal. Unreal!

Heston must have tried that dish thousands of times,

you know, and to actually see genuine joy on his face when he...

..when he is tasting it, was... Yeah. Something I'll never forget.

I just can't wait to, like, tell my family!

I know, right?! "Guess what we did today?" I know!

Oh, so proud of you, mate!

Sophie and Henry were tasked with Heston's iconic ice cream dish,

Pain Perdu.

French toast with tomato and coffee jam

and a pancetta crisp,

served with bacon and egg ice cream...

GREGG: Waaayyy!

..scrambled in liquid nitrogen...

Brilliant.

..and topped with a tea jelly.

The whole thing eats really, really well.

I know you were a bit worried towards the end -

the ice cream mix wasn't chilling down enough.

The ice cream was spot on.

You've got the little bit of bacon. It's not salty in any way,

but you've got the savouriness coming from the tomatoes,

which are also sweet,

and then you've got that cushion from the bread, that toast,

which is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

You get texture and flavour,

which just come together beautifully.

It's obviously a dessert, because there's so much sugar in it,

but it takes you to breakfast and back a number of times!

The ice cream - of course, cold numbs your tongue,

and as it starts to melt,

it is salty, but slightly sweet bacon.

It's a Heston dish in concept, but the execution is every bit you two.

Thank you. Thank you.

Well done. Well done! That was good feedback!

Can't believe that just happened. Yeah, it was really surreal.

Absolutely unbelievable experience.

I've had a wonderful time.

I thought they all did an incredible job.

I think they could have crumbled under the pressure here.

They are iconic dishes from an iconic restaurant.

They have done an amazing job. I think you really inspired them.

Yeah, I'm glad you've inspired them,

because what comes up next is going to be tough.

You now have had a taste of what is possible.

You've been given a brief.

Your brief is to cook something which is magical,

something which is exciting, adventurous and theatrical.

Something which will stimulate all our senses.

I want to see some magic. I want to be surprised,

and that means emotion and storytelling around the dish.

Ladies and gentlemen, the job is to impress Heston,

because at the end of this,

five of you go through to the next round.

That does mean one of you is going home.

Two hours. Let's cook.

This is a big ask.

Our six having to impress you, me and Heston.

What we want today is straight out of The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Sophie, our brilliant vegetarian. She loves plant-based food.

I think a lot of the things that I've been doing

recently are quite controversial,

and they're a little bit weird and wacky.

And I just thought,

why not lean into that

and just completely experiment?

How did you feel when you got the brief?

I was pretty excited when I got the brief.

I mean, I like trying to replicate some meat dishes,

which I guess in itself is kind of theatrical.

What are you cooking? I'm doing a watermelon tartare

on layered potatoes

with egg yolk and caviar.

But I'm doing it all plant-based.

So you're doing a play on a meat dish

and you're a vegetarian? Yes. Yeah. Oh, that's cool.

I've actually not had caviar before,

or tartare, so I'm creating an experience that I've not had.

I think it sounds wonderful. Chef, what do you reckon?

Me too. I'm very excited to try it.

This seems to be a mixture of tuna tartare and a steak tartare.

Steak being replaced with watermelon,

marinated with soy sauce and nori seaweed.

Then it's going to be roasted.

It will give us the texture of meat,

but the flavour of the salt and the sea.

On top of that, we've got a runny egg yolk,

but it's not an egg yolk.

It's going to be made from carrot and black salt.

Pretending I'm having fun.

The whole thing is then going to be garnished with caviar,

but not caviar at all, but spheres of seaweed.

She's doing sliced potatoes, which are going to be baked in the oven.

Those potatoes are the only thing

that might be able to give us texture.

I hope it's not all too soft.

I like precise measurements.

A dash of this and a splash of that

doesn't really fit in with my style of cooking.

Harry's pushing towards fine dining.

What he loves is classic dishes.

Heston's dishes are a move way away from that.

Be very interesting to see if Harry can adapt.

I'm doing a take on an Eton mess today.

So we've got strawberry-filled meringues,

we've got balsamic gel, raspberry puree,

some fresh macerated strawberries.

Chantilly cream in there as well.

And then it's all encased in a sugar dome

on a nice little bed of white chocolate soil.

Where's the inspiration for this come from?

First-ever dessert memory I have, actually,

was when my mum told me that I could go and make my own dessert.

So I ran into the kitchen, grabbed some ready-made meringues,

some double cream, and some strawberries, mixed together,

and then for about four or five years afterwards,

I was convinced that I'd invented Eton mess.

It wasn't until many years later that I realised it was invented

100 years before I was even born.

Harry's making a sugar globe made from sugar and glucose and water.

This is literally the most stressful bit.

Let's go for it.

Two hemispheres brought together.

When we crack that open, that's the theatre.

And inside he's going to have vanilla-rich cream,

crispy meringues baked in the oven -

and they should be dry all the way through -

and then macerated strawberries.

Technically, there's a huge amount of work.

This is a big ask.

I'm absolutely terrified of the sugar work.

It's something that I've never tried before.

It's unpredictable and it could just all fall apart,

and it's the centrepiece of the dish.

You've had 45 minutes. 45 minutes have gone.

I'm just feeling a little bit worried about

getting everything done in the time.

Hazel is a new mum who obviously loves to cook.

She has grown in confidence

as her competition has developed.

How has Heston's visit here inspired you?

I mean, it's just inspired me to, like, really ramp it up a notch,

you know, and just get creative and push my boundaries.

The inspiration behind this dish, which I've called My Motherhood,

is a celebration of breast-feeding my little baby girl, Halo,

how much love that's brought us,

and I want to celebrate that

for myself and all the other mothers out there.

It's going to be a dulce de leche mousse dome

with a pistachio biscuit base,

a hazelnut and white chocolate mirror glaze,

a white chocolate ball filled with jelly hearts,

a halo biscuit tuile

and a vanilla creme anglaise.

The dome is going to resemble a breast,

and then you'll have the creme anglaise in a baby bottle.

You wanted emotion! I wanted emotion, yes!

It doesn't get more emotional than that, does it? Blimey! Blimey, yes.

We are getting a dome,

which is going to be made from dulce de leche.

Taking a rich caramel mixture,

mix it with cream gelatine to have a lovely mousse.

Mousse has to set completely.

It's got to be really lovely, light and fluffy.

On the side of that, we're going to be served creme anglaise,

that classic French custard,

and we've got a tuile in the shape of a halo,

because Hazel's daughter is called Halo.

What is paramount for Hazel is timing.

She has to make sure every single element is made,

chilled, set, before she starts to put it all together.

Henry, technically, very, very good cook.

We've had classic dishes from around the world reimagined.

I definitely like the idea of theatrical food.

That being said, having to actually

come up with something that's MasterChef standard,

you soon realise that you need to do something

that both looks amazing, theatrical, and tastes really good.

And that's actually really difficult.

I'm making you, sir, a stuffed poussin, some squash,

some leeks and some potato.

But everything's swapped position.

Chicken's going to look like a squash.

Squash is going to look like a leek.

Leek is going to look like some shoestring fries.

And the potato is going to look like a chicken drumstick.

Brilliant.

The thing I'm most worried about is that this can look great, right?

But if this tastes boring, then you go,

"There's no point in doing it," so...

Yeah, you're setting yourself up for a bit more pressure there.

Yeah, exactly! Yes. Good luck, Henry.

Thank you. Cheers.

The chicken - he's using a small chicken, a poussin.

He's made a stuffing with sausage meat and apricots,

tying the whole thing up and trussing it

so it does look like a little pumpkin you get at Halloween.

The squash is going to be put inside a leek tube,

so it actually looks like a leek,

but inside it's going to be a squash puree.

The leeks are going to be cut to become chips.

There's our potatoes.

And then the potatoes, he's taking bits of potato,

crumbing it and then deep-frying it,

so it actually looks like a chicken drumstick.

It's showing off a huge amount of process.

You have 45 minutes left.

SHE EXHALES

How fast does it move in here?!

Claire is a family cook. She's been cooking for years,

but her dishes are far from ordinary.

She's already kind of entering the world of crazy food.

She's going to love this!

I am taking inspiration from your illusion dishes.

So the dish is a smoked salmon pate

with a scallop cream, and a chilli and tomato sauce

with sprinkles and Parmesan crackers.

But it should look like strawberry ice cream

with strawberry sauce and hundreds and thousands

with a bit of squirty cream.

Like a sundae. It should look like a sundae.

Whoa! My grandmother would save up 20-pence pieces.

When we went on holiday,

we could use it for a fancy ice cream.

So it should look like my childhood

and taste like the things I love to eat today.

I'm intrigued about the balance, because obviously with the salmon,

the texture of that is going to play quite a big role in

playing around with the confusion.

I think that's the absolute key to this dish. Yeah.

The ice cream needs to be in a ball somehow,

and that cream needs to taste of scallops,

but still actually be able to hold up enough

that it does look like whipped cream.

This could be fantastic,

but the flavours have to all come together as a marriage,

otherwise it just doesn't work.

The elements I'm concerned about today

are the things that have to set.

If they don't work, the theatre is lost,

and so they have to work today.

Sam hails from Thailand, where he cooks classic Thai food.

The flavours are sensational.

But he's not afraid to experiment,

and that is what Heston is all about.

I am doing a Black Forest gateau-inspired chocolate cake

with a candy frost to cover them.

So you're hiding the Black Forest gateau

in a cloud of candyfloss? Yeah.

I used to work as a domiciliary care.

One of the patients I used to look after,

she had some brain impairment and bipolar.

While I was with her, she said, "I just want to do a cake."

With her having bipolar, she knows exactly what she wants.

We do the baking together with me supporting her. Wow.

And then that was the first experience of me

with the Black Forest gateau cake.

That's powerful. Yeah.

Really powerful.

HE LAUGHS

That emotion is going to come straight through.

Yeah. So that's why I chose to do this.

So it means a lot. Oof!

We have got a chocolate cake made without flour.

With that, in layers, we have a chocolate and kirsch mousse.

The mousse has to be set perfectly,

and it's got to be a really rich flavour

of cherries and also chocolate.

Inside that, we've also got cherries

which have been macerated with kirsch and brandy,

but cooked to almost like a compote-y jam mixture.

Then across the top of that, a mirror glaze,

which should be a lovely, almost ganache mixture,

but should be completely shiny.

And then he's hiding the whole thing in a wig of candyfloss.

There's lots of process, timing's important,

but also, every single part of this has to work -

otherwise, everything's going to collapse.

I just have to believe,

and hopefully someone from above

look over my shoulder, and then everything will turn out well.

Your creations look and sound magical,

but you've got just ten minutes.

The sugar domes, they're super-delicate,

and the longer they cool, as well, they get even more brittle.

So I've just got to have a steady hand.

Oh, this is a weird shape!

I am losing my marbles, to be honest.

Working in the fridge, working here...

Guys, you have five minutes, please. Just five minutes.

So that's the crumb that looks like chocolate crumb,

but it's actually rye and bacon and garlic.

You have just three minutes, everybody. Three minutes left.

Oh, don't split, don't split!

60 seconds is what you've got, guys.

There you go. Go. Commit. There you go!

Ohhh! Go, Sam!

That's it! Your time is up.

Well done, everybody. Well done.

How'd it go? Sounded like it went well.

It went. It went. "It went."! Yeah, exactly!

Sophie. Come on, come on!

Hello.

Sophie's theatrical take on a tartare

is watermelon roasted with soy sauce and nori,

coated in a soy milk mayo,

on layered potato,

with pickled enoki mushrooms,

topped with an egg yolk made of carrot and black salt,

and seaweed caviar.

I like the look of it.

I love the sense of confusion

and the overriding sort of

slightly Japanese style of fishiness to it,

which, bizarrely, is a bit meaty.

I really like it.

My massive concern with this dish was texture,

but those potatoes sitting underneath there,

they give you that crunch.

The caviar, which looks fantastic, does explode in your mouth.

I think you've done a really good job here.

What you've done here is recreated

the texture and the flavours of a steak tartare.

The egg yolk works.

It feels like a rich egg yolk that you'd mix through the tartare.

I think this is really, really clever.

In fact, for me, it may be your finest work.

I'm in actual shock. Like,

that was some of the best feedback I've got,

but I think I'm just slowly processing it!

Playing with the mind,

Henry has made a squash-shaped poussin stuffed with sausage meat,

mashed potatoes shaped into a drumstick...

..potato chips made from leek,

and a leek filled with squash puree,

served with a chicken sauce.

I love the chicken pumpkin.

The sauce is really, really good.

My criticism with it, really, is,

it's a conventional dish which has

a really beautiful centrepiece to it.

You get conventional more than different? Yeah.

The leek itself, with the squash inside,

the squash is quite sticky

and that leek on the outside is a little bit tough and stringy.

The potato, my croquette mixture has started to blow open,

which tells me the mashed potato was too wet,

and the potatoes to become the leeks...

Because you put leeks underneath them,

the deception has gone,

so it doesn't work as a bit of trickery.

I feel slightly different to the other two

in that I love absolutely everything on this plate.

That chicken looks every inch like a small pumpkin.

You cut through that, it's clear that chicken is beautifully cooked,

really moist, and in there,

that sausage meat is giving it the pepperiness.

I really like it.

There's mixed feedback.

I had a couple of things I could have done better in there.

So, yeah, a bit nervous.

Turning her childhood favourite ice cream sundae on its head,

Claire has made salmon mousse and scallop cream

with a bacon crumb,

Parmesan wafer,

and sprinkles made from edible flowers,

served with a tomato and chilli sauce.

I think it looks amazing,

because it looks every inch an ice cream sundae.

You have turned savoury to a sweet.

It's fun!

I love the creaminess of your salmon mousse.

Your scallop cream I think is lovely,

but a little bit powerful.

It could be just a little bit lighter.

But once I mix it all together, it is wow.

Thank you.

Like the bacon crumb underneath, saltiness. Like the sprinkles.

But it's a very rich dish.

You look at the amount of mousse you've got in there,

I'd be tempted to really reduce this down to a much, much smaller dish.

I think it looks really playful to me.

And the addition of this is wonderful,

and the little kick of chilli works really well.

In terms of the brief, I think you just about smashed it.

Claire, thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you.

The best part, for me, was Heston saying,

"You pretty much smashed the brief."

That's the best feedback I've had, full stop. Like, delighted.

Harry's take on an Eton mess

is a sugar dome containing strawberry-filled meringues,

macerated strawberries,

raspberry coulis, Chantilly cream and a balsamic gel,

on top of a white chocolate soil.

GREGG: Hooa-haaa!

Yes! Yes!

The shell, the dome, the texture and the finesse of it

and the flavour of it, are bang-on.

Inside, I would have pushed up the acidity a bit more,

because the white chocolate soil is quite sweet.

And maybe some more meringue.

OK.

The strawberries all chopped up in their own natural form are lovely.

The raspberry coulis is sharp rather than being too sweet.

Your cream itself, rich with vanilla.

But the meringues you put inside,

because with all the cream and the juice of the strawberries,

are starting to collapse,

and you don't get the crispness of those meringues.

It's Eton mess flavour, which I absolutely love, of course.

Cream, strawberry, sugary meringue.

And that stuff is comforting and it's sweet.

Well done.

I think I hit the brief. You know, I think it was theatrical.

The sugar dome really worked nicely. It looked great.

But, you know, some of the other elements

maybe needed a bit more care and attention.

Inspired by her breast-feeding journey,

Hazel's dish is called My Motherhood.

It's a dulce de leche mousse

with a white chocolate mirror glaze and raspberry powder,

a tempered white chocolate sphere filled with hazelnut praline,

and raspberry and Limoncello jellies,

with a halo biscuit tuile

served with creme anglaise in a milk bottle.

And there's some audio for you as well.

BABY BABBLES

That's my... That's your baby? Yes, yeah.

I love everything about this. Thank you.

Custard's really well made.

So is the dulce de leche mousse.

The addition of Halo, your little 'un, crying,

and serving the custard in a milk bottle,

I think is fantastic.

Thank you.

That mousse is light and soft and just holds up.

Across the top, the mirror glaze giving a really lovely shine.

The raspberry jellies with the Limoncello,

little, tiny surprises.

Love the little tuile giving crunch as well.

I really like it.

As creativity goes, and personal to you,

I mean, it's bang-on, isn't it?

I think you've done an amazing job.

Thank you.

I feel relieved my message got across.

I hope I've done mums proud.

Inspired by a former care patient,

Sam has created a dessert

based on the flavours of Black Forest gateau...

..a mirror-glazed chocolate cake

with layers of kirsch chocolate mousse

filled with a cherry compote,

underneath a candyfloss dome

flamed with brandy.

Woohoo! Oh, wow.

Oh, you clever lad!

Oh, mate, it just gets better and better!

I love the theatre of the melting candyfloss.

The chocolate sponge itself is not too sweet at all.

In fact, it's more of a bitter feel.

The sweetness is in the melted candyfloss

with the heat of the booze.

That's a stunning bit of work, my friend.

Honestly...boom!

The mirror glaze - absolutely perfect.

The mousse going through there - wonderful.

Your chocolate sponge, really lovely and soft.

And then this sort of cavern of cherries

with lots and lots of booze, like a jam.

I think that's fantastic.

Thank you.

The reveal for me definitely had a wow factor.

It feels also like this gateau has got love in it.

It was exciting, it was magical,

it was emotional, and the execution was bang-on.

Thank you so much.

What's the name of the person you looked after, who inspired this?

Amanda. Sam, she'd be proud of you.

HE EXHALES SHARPLY

Sorry.

It's really, really happy tears, like tears of joy.

I give everything that I have to that dish,

and, um, Heston liked my food!

I cannot believe it. I just still cannot process that.

I'm gobsmacked.

The amount of emotion and effort they put into it,

and the joy they seem to be getting out of it,

I really think after these last two challenges,

they're going to grow as chefs. Unforgettable for them,

unforgettable for us. Unforgettable for me.

Well, I'm really pleased. An absolute joy.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Brilliant.

Thank you so much indeed. See you soon.

Take care. Thanks, Heston.

I've got to say, these six have performed

way beyond anything I thought they were capable of.

I think some of the greatest couple of rounds we've seen

in the competition for a long, long time.

What an emotional day.

I think each one of us has pushed ourselves emotionally,

mentally, physically. Yes, yes.

Whoever's going, we just hold our heads up

really, really high, because that was epic!

There's one absolute standout here, and that is Sam.

The melting candyfloss to reveal the chocolate gateau

was just stunning!

Sam ticked every single box.

Sam is going through.

Sophie took watermelon, potatoes,

carrots and then made an extraordinary dish.

Her dish looked every inch a tartare, didn't it?

John, she smashed it. She's going through.

There's one other cook who did really, really well,

and that was Hazel.

It was emotional, it was creative,

and it tasted great.

So there we've got three people going through to the next round.

That now leaves us a conversation with the remaining three.

Claire, I thought, really showed her imagination.

We had incredible amount of skill on show there.

It was just too rich for me. But I loved the design.

Henry - I was really impressed,

but the creativity kind of ended at the chicken pumpkin.

A pumpkin puree should be perfect.

A mashed potato shouldn't blow out of a croquette.

For me, the execution is where I've got the question mark.

Now, Harry. I like the sugar work,

and I liked the inside that tasted like the Eton mess.

That globe cracked perfectly.

Making meringues and making a white chocolate soil - fantastic.

But for me, the juice of the strawberries

had basically melted that meringue. We didn't get that texture.

It would mean everything to stay. Of course it would.

I've definitely got the MasterChef bug,

and when you get it, you don't want to let go of it.

If this is the last time I cook,

I know that I can be so proud of myself

and know how far I've come.

I'd like to stay in the competition,

because I'd like to get to the final.

I'd like to go all the way.

I'd be really gutted if I went home today.

What an incredible couple of challenges.

We did say we've only got five places in the next round.

That does mean, sadly,

one of you is leaving us.

The person leaving...

..is Henry.

SOME GASPS

Henry, I know you're disappointed now,

but I want you to look back with real pride

at what you've achieved.

Right now, though, we have to say bye-bye.

Henry, thank you very much indeed. Henry, thanks very much indeed.

Thank you.

I'm obviously feeling really disappointed,

but it's inspired me, it's made me a better cook,

it's made me push myself,

and, you know, I'm proud of how far I've got.

Congratulations! Well done.

Ahhh!

Well done, everyone. Great job, guys.

It doesn't feel real to be in the final five.

Yeah, I mean, I thought I was going out.

The sort of daunting idea of having to cook again

is slowly seeping in!

Super, super, super happy and super proud of myself.

Could never imagine it in my life! HE LAUGHS

I'm going to take every ounce of Heston-ness

that's happened here, and put it into my cooking and drive forward.

Next time - it's the last of the semifinals...

Trying to crack on and make sure I get everything done.

I just want to make sure it's cooked all the way through.

If it's not, I'm going home.

..and the five remaining contestants are pushed to their limits...

Done that, done that, done that...

I love it.

I think it's great.

..as they battle for a place in Finals Week.